The sound of glass exploding echoed off the walled yard of the lighthouse and a male voice hollered in triumph.

“That’s ten!” Maverick hooted as he lowered his rifle with his tethered limb and turned to Talos. “Pay up, sucka!”

A line of destroyed bottle bases on multiple stray fences backed up the stallion’s victory. A different row beside his own had four bottles destroyed but another six remained perfectly unharmed.

The sore-losing griffon grunted a string of swift curses as he reached a claw into his bag. Pulling out two recently expired candy bars, he handed them over to his overconfident competitor with a huff. Maverick let out a mock “Thank you!” as he stashed the chocolatey treats into his own bag.

Suddenly, a faint chirp emitted from the stallion’s ear-mounted Tethertech before a small holoprojected box was displayed in front of him.

INCOMING CALL FROM: IVORY CROSS. ACCEPT? Was displayed in bold blocky lettering in the middle of the box.

“Accept.” Maverick confirmed aloud, causing the box to fade until a slightly larger rectangular menu appeared.

This menu was more transparent and displayed a live - if somewhat static-filled - feed of the pearl white and blue mare’s face.

“What’s up Ive?” He asked, noting the serious and concerned look on her face.

“Storm’s heading back. I can see him heading back.” She replied before glancing off of the video feed and putting a rifle’s scope out into the view of the wasteland.

Talos, who also heard her, shared an equally confused look with Maverick for a moment.

“Already?” He asked, worry slowly starting to find its way to his mind as well. “It's nearly nine. He shouldn’t be back till around five.”

“Maybe he finally gave up.” Came Talos’ blunt response, earning him a less pleasant look from Maverick, before a gasp from Ivory silenced any further comments.

“He’s not alone!” She said before taking another look through a precision rifle’s scope on the feed.
“What? Who’s with hi-” Maverick asked but was cut off by the mare.

“Open the gate - quick! She might be hurt!”

“She?” Maverick questioned aloud - to no one in particular

“Well, well - looks like Storm finally found himself a piece of meat.” Talos chuckled imagining the possible appearance of this ‘she.’ “Think he’ll share?” The deprived griffon asked, earning a ‘the fuck?’ look from Maverick.

With that, the two males got on either side of the gate before holstering their weapons and opening the gate. They got it wide enough just in time to the bloodied armored form of their companion, his dark blue - and now slightly red - suit and purple visor were unmistakable, carrying an unconscious mare on his back.

Despite being safe inside the wall and anti-radiation spell provided by Ivory, the glare from the unforgiving sun blocked out a good view of Storm and his unconscious companion, so the others had to wait until he was inside the safety of the sealed gate before getting a good look.

Once inside, the suited stallion pressed a button on his suit’s chest piece before a metallic whir and hiss of air were heard within the helmet as the metallic plating was tethered apart and stored in a slot behind his head. Storm’s mane was coated in sweat and had a thin streak of crimson running down it to his cheek.

“Sweet Celestia,” Maverick began “What happened?”

“New Damned.” Came Storm’s deadpan response. “Got a good hit on me.”

“That’s not what I meant, man.” Maverick corrected, before gesturing to the unconscious mare on his back. “What happened there? What’s with the girl?”

“I’ll tell you in a bit. Lets get her inside first.”

Storm walked past the two, leaving a stunned Maverick and a pervertedly hopeful Talos to follow. Ivory appeared in the doorway, rifle slung around her back, and locked her own blue eyes with Storm’s piercing purple ones.

“She looked fine to me, but it would be better to check up on her.” He said.

Ivory agreed as she stepped aside to allow the two entrance into the lighthouse. Storm made his way to the relatively clean couch in the living room. He stepped to the side of it - and with Ivory’s help - guided the unconscious mare onto the couch.

Using her magic, Ivory levitated a small box of medical supplies and gear to her side. She prepped to examine the mare when Storm, who was standing over her shoulder, spoke up.

“I’ve got to handle something in the back. Can you make sure she is alright?”

Ivory gave a small smile and nodded.

Storm took one last look at the newcomer before he grabbed his Sweeper with his Tethertech and headed towards the hallway in the back of the place.

On the way, he passed by Maverick and Talos who had just come in from their contest. Both of which still expected an answer, but Storm’s ‘not now’ look was enough to hold off their curiosity, or at least one of theirs.

“Don’t even fucking think about it.” Storm stated looking Talos dead in the eye.

The griffon shook off the hungry look he had towards the perfectly clean pegasus mare on the couch with that sentence. Storm then continued on his way into the hall that led into the back of the building until he finally got to the familiar door at the end.

In his ‘excitement,’ Storm didn’t even think to knock as he opened the door to Nourish’s room to find the mare feeding Violet with a bottle. Both Raine and Violet had headphones over their ears as they had been warned before hoof about the shooting contest outside.

The mentioned mare looked up from feeding her colt and smiled weakly at Storm.

“You’re bleeding, hon.” She said calmly.

“I’ll live.” Storm replied, trying not to sound too indifferent. “Finally found something.”

Using his tethered limb, Storm reached into his suit’s storage compartment and pulled out the compact oxygen machine before setting it on the bed in front of the others.

Nourish had a look of disbelieving wonder on her face as she spoke. “Oh, honey, you didn’t have to do this.” She stated with sincerity but her expression was far more than joyful as she looked over the machine to find that it was still in good condition. “Does this mean you’ll be around more?” She asked hopefully.

Storm avoided her gaze and question prompting a sigh from the mare. “I guess not, huh?”

“Something came up.” He finally answered cautiously. “I’m going to make sure it's not a threat to us. Then we’ll see.”

“Something?”

Storm sighed, more in defeated confusion at the earlier scene than annoyance at her question. “Yeah, I’m still not sure about it myself but I found somepony out there. In the middle of the day. No suit or mask. Nothing.”

“Maybe they were suicidal? Just went out to wait it out?”

“No, it was like she appeared out of thin air.”

Nourish gave him a look like she had seen a ghost - or worse. “You really need a break from there, Storm. It’s making you see things.”

“She’s real. I touched her just to be sure. Carried her back here and everyone else saw her. I don’t know what she was doing out there or if she is alone but I’m going to figure that out the second she wakes up. If she belongs to one of those slaver groups, I don’t want a whole army on our asses. We’ll send her back.”

A brief flash of hurt held in Nourish’s eyes at the mention of those terrible creatures. “We should let her stay if she is.”

Storm was about to answer when he felt a rubbing sensation on his forehoof. Raine had knocked the headphones off and snuggled up next to his hoof while he had been distracted. “We aren’t invincible. Even if we do manage to hold off another group like that, we’d run dry on supplies or lose this place in the fight. One pony isn’t worth everyone’s lives.”

Nourish gave him a quizzical look. “I was.” She stated. “Or I would’ve been killed back in Salvus. You and Maverick risked everything for me. She is no different.”

“We’ll just wait till she wakes up before that call is made.” Storm replied as he looked down in surprise. Raine was nibbling on the thick fabric of his suit, trying to bite into it.

“He’s teething.” Nourish chuckled weakly.

The smallest of smiles formed on Storm’s face.

“Raine, honey, please give Storm his hoof back.” She asked while grabbing her infant son.

Storm didn’t push the foal off and patiently waited as her mother gently pried her off.

“Look, I’d better get back out there before daylight ends.” Storm said, changing the subject.

“Okay, just please don’t hurt yourself.” Nourish replied. “You don’t owe us anything, Storm. You’ve been more kind to us than this whole world has.”

Doesn’t that say something… Storm mentally scoffed.

He nodded before turning to leave. Storm was at the door when Nourish spoke up one last time.

“Going out there won’t fix anything. You can’t keep it bottled up, Storm. Sooner or later you have to let it out - let it all go.”

Storm halted for a moment. He contemplated turning back, but knew what she was trying to pry at. He wouldn’t have it.

Exiting the doorway and softly shutting the door behind him, Storm closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He knew Nourish meant well, but she had her own problems. Raising two - and soon to be three - children in this hell took priority over his own.

He didn’t know if that answer was the truth or just another excuse to keep running. Either way it would-

Then he heard it.

A groan.

“Ughhhh…” a scratchy female voice let out followed by a brief silence. “Twi? Girls? Are you there?”

Where the fuck is Ivory? Storm thought as it was clear their “guest” was awake and not being guarded.

“Are you playing a prank on me? Well, it's not working!” The voice continued, sounding more confident.

Storm barely heard a word of what she had said. His brain had already switched to survival mode as he retrieved his Sweeper from his back as quietly as possible.

Then more silence…

“Girls, seriously, this isn’t funny anymore! Where are you?!” The voice returned with a more slightly hysteric tone to it.

Storm had listened a bit more this time and was now at the end of the hallway, and should he round the corner - immediately to his left and against the same wall he was shouldered on - was the awakened stranger.

Keeping his weapon raised, the stallion mentally prepared himself knowing she was unarmed. Wait, maybe she knocked Ivory out - or worse… Maybe she got her rifle and is waiting…

Just in case… Storm thought as he switched the safety off.

In one fluid motion, he swung around the hallway entrance with his weapon’s wide-barrel aimed directly at the couch to find…

Nothing.

What the- His thoughts were interrupted when something slammed into him from the side.

Storm didn’t need long to think as he used the suit’s remaining thruster charge to slam his attacker - and himself into the wall. He heard a feminine grunt as the would-be assailant was smashed into the solid surface.

The impact sent the two tumbling with the mare on the ground at the wall’s base and Storm on the other side of the room with only a table dividing them.

The mare got to her hooves in an instant, determination and the slightest hint of fear in her eyes as she stared at the spot where he had landed, which was obstructed in her vision by the table. With a battle cry she leapt over the table with a hoof raised high to pummel her attacker only to be surprised.

He wasn’t there.

CLICK!

She heard an audible clicking sound to her right as if something was pumped or primed. Quick as lightning, the mare turned her head towards the sound and was met with five glowing barrels.

The last thing she remembered before the world went dark was the crackling of electricity and the feeling of being zapped.

Storm watched emotionlessly as the cyan mare’s body shuddered and shaked as the electricity coursed through her and knocked her out cold. He knew it wouldn’t kill her - just hurt like hell. He had designed this mode on the Sweeper to be for disabling only and wouldn’t have if Nourish hadn’t talked him into it.

The next thing he knew, multiple hoovesteps came running in his direction and he raised his weapon. Eyes locked on the closed front door and burning with violent determination, the stallion had no time to switch the weapon’s mode as the door was flung open to reveal…

His friends.

Ivory was first and worry coated her face. Maverick and Talos were right behind her - rifles in tethered limb and claw. Ivory looked from the mare, who had stopped thrashing and gone still right before she walked in, then up to Storm.

The light hum of his weapon and rounded bruise on his right cheek spoke for itself.

“I thought you were keeping an eye on her.” Storm said to the white unicorn.

Ivory was speechless for a moment after the scene, but found her voice. “I-I was. These two needed somepony to help them for a second so I left.”

Storm’s unamused expression forced her to continue.

“But I never thought she would wake up that soon! She seemed so out of it when you brought her.”

“What if she got to the guns?” He asked, coldly at first before his tone changed to a more hostile one. “What if she got to Nourish - the foals, huh?”

Ivory looked down in shame as he continued.

“Wait, what did you even need help with?” He sidetracked and moved his glance to the guys.

Maverick and Talos shared a look before the violet stallion rubbed a hoof on the back of his neck.

“Uh… cleaning up the bottles.” He answered sheepishly.

Storm clearly still wasn’t amused - or happy.

“It’s his fault, really!” Maverick said, shooting a hoof at Talos. “He was being a sore loser and wouldn’t pick up his half, so I asked Ivory to do it.”

“Why couldn’t you just do it?” Storm asked.

“Cuz the winner doesn’t suck up to the loser.” Maverick replied as he waved a hoof dismissively.

Still not amused.

“Okay, okay, maybe we didn’t handle it the bes-”

“Maybe? One slip up! One is all it takes and we are fucked!” Storm cut his friend off through clenched teeth. “Has being cooped up in here that long made you two forget that? Do I have to remind you what the fuck is out there?!”

Ivory flinched at the raising of his voice. Storm almost never got like this, but all anger had a boiling point. That was certain.

“Okay, sorry man, just calm down.” Maverick switched to sincere as he tried to approach Storm.

“Don’t even start that shit with me!” Storm was yelling now as he pointed a hoof towards the unconscious mare. “For all we know she is with the university community or some other group looking for shit they can take from us!”

Then he heard the cries of a foal coming from the backroom, probably set off in his verbal outburst.

“Perfect, fucking perfect!” He muttered.

Before it got any worse, Storm was able to force the lid back on his boiling emotions. He sighed before grabbing the mare off the ground and hoisting her up to the couch again.

“What are you doing?” Talos asked, being the only one not afraid to set him off - or more accurately - too dense to realize the possibility.

Storm reached into his suit’s back slot and pulled out some rope that he then used to bind her forelegs, wings, and hindlegs together before he answered.

“Making sure that doesn’t happen again.” He said without taking his eyes off his work, making sure the knots were secure. “We’ll question her when she wakes up.”

After a moment to catch his breath and return to his senses, Storm started to simmer down and decided to leave for a bit. Whether it was to get a break from the others or to give them a break from him was anypony’s guess. Not that it mattered - just had to happen.

He had left the front door of the residential cabin to the lighthouse and made his way to what used to be a boathouse down by the water. This “boathouse” was sectioned off from the main part of the gated lighthouse but still had Ivory’s radiation resistant spell over it.

Finding that spell hadn’t been easy as Storm had to search through many libraries and archives over the years while Ivory practiced to make an everlasting spell that would repel the sun's rays back out into what was left of the atmosphere. This spell was so perfectly honed that it would remain long after her death or until she found a way to cancel it.

As for the boathouse itself, it was more of a refined metal shed on the edge of the water. The windows had been boarded up with metal sheets and the wooden interior reinforced as well. Despite being armored with the scraps from the wall, the shed could also hold its own against Flares and the Damned - as Storm had been caught in there a few nights with no way to make it back in fear of leading the creatures right into the foals.

This was Storm’s “happy place” for a lack of better word. Nopony had anything even close to a happy place or safe space anymore to hide from the dangers of the world. The truth was that nowhere was safe - only not discovered by the danger - but sooner or later it would find them.

It always did…

Nevertheless, this shed was a sliver of what once was and his favorite place to get away from it all.

After making his way down the rocky trail of the bay’s overhang, Storm found himself on a creaky wooden dock leading up to the shed. Opening the steel door, he stepped inside and slammed it behind him a little harder than he had subconsciously meant to. The stallion moved a hoof to his right and flicked on a light switch, causing a flurry of dim bulbs to flicker to life.

One of the bulbs to the furthest corner facing the ocean tried to weakly flicker but went dark in the end.

Of course. Storm thought before using his tethered limb to reach for a nearby table where a small pocket sketchbook was sitting.

Grabbing the book, he flipped it over to the backside where a single piece of paper was taped to the back cover. Levitating a pen from the same table, he looked it over before adding a new box and objective.

With a sigh, he placed the book down and pressed a hidden button on his suit’s collar. With an airtight hiss, the collar slowly rotated and unlocked, allowing him to unlatch it and step out of the suit like how a pony would have stepped out of an oversized hoodie.

The stallion dragged the suit to what used to be a mechanical chariot jack to fix wheels then hoisted the metallic outfit up to the hooks before securing it in place.

Storm looked over the suit - his pride and joy. He had helped make the thing back when it was his grandfather’s. That stolen and modified piece of steel and cloth had saved both of their flanks countless times and was the reason that one of them was still alive.

One of them.

Storm tried not to think about that night but it was impossible when his daily outfit was a physical reminder of it. Good thing he usually saw outward from inside of it and didn’t spend long staring at it. That was just asking for memories.

Not the good ones either.

Forcing himself to look away, the stallion glanced to his right where four more chariot jacks held various ATS suits that he had found over the years. Most of them were in obvious state of disrepair and damaged with the damages becoming more prominent the further from his own suit the line got.

The suit at the very end was no more than a destroyed helmet, chestplate and half a torso. It was obviously used for spare parts for the others when they could be salvaged. The one next to it was a little better as it had a full body but was missing various chunks of armor around the fore and hind hoof areas. It also had multiple tears, making it useless in the irradiated daytime. The third suit - and one closest to his own - was practically combat ready as it had no tears and barely any damaged armor plates.

The suit still had its original yellow and silver colors as it did when in service of the royal guard. In fact, all of the three other suits still had their original paint with heavy chipping technically making Storm’s own dull blue, grey, and bronze suit the outlier. It was practically a refurbished factory ATS suit as the only ‘fancy’ feature it possessed was the self-assembling helmet and communications system. Storm and his grandfather had to manually create and add in their modifications such as the hoof-mounted blade, thrusters, map systems, and more.

The third suit was technically Maverick’s as that was what he used the few times he had joined Storm on a supply run to another community, but he refused to accept help scavenging. It was a job that was on him. He couldn’t stand to get anyone else killed and would gladly throw himself on the blade for his friends.

It was all he had.

Moving his hoof up to the purple dot on his Tethertech, a faint beep resounded as the device displayed a transparent holo projector screen in front of its owner.

“Run diagnostics.” Storm said aloud while pointing the direction of his head to his own suit.

A flashlight beam appeared from the side of the ear-mounted module alongside a purple beam that snaked its way across the suit - scanning all the nooks and crannies - as it worked from helmet to hoof.

Storm stood almost perfectly still as the purple beam finished up its scan and disappeared back into the internals of the device, while the flashlight remained active. Luckily, the beam was off to the side and in no way hindered his viewing of the new text box that appeared suddenly.

“Give me highlights.” Storm said before the box filling his vision erased the text and turned into a multi-colored layout of a dull grey.

Different levels of damage were highlighted on his vision with green being small dents and scratches, yellow being medium damages, and red being critical damages. As expected, the only red part was the shoulder and hindleg-mounted thrusters.

“No matter what I do or how far away I go, I have to see red, huh?” Storm muttered to himself, but apparently not quietly enough as his Tethertech took it as a command.

Normally, Storm would have panicked and scrambled to shut any sound down - especially music - but in the confined four walls of his ‘workshed’ he felt more at ease. Not vulnerable, but not on edge either.

For the next couple of hours, the stallion started working in combination with his voice activated assistant, tethering nearby tools and repairing the damage to the best of his ability while a playlist of previously saved songs - from two decades ago - played distantly in the background.

Storm had actually been a huge rock and metal fan even before shit hit the fan - hell, it was one of the things him and Maverick talked about exclusively when they first met back in school. Now even in this tortuous world, he still tried to find time to sit back and listen to it but that had two major problems; the first being that it made noise and a lot of it. When Storm put on anything it was because he was in the mood to tear shit up or because he needed to tone out the world for a bit. Usually it was the latter. The second was that he hardly ever had any ‘sit back’ time. Either he was out scavenging, repairing shit here, or trying not to become a victim of the living or the dead.

Tonight was different. He hadn’t put it on purposely, but he didn’t turn it off either.

Just let it be.

Besides he had more-

A series of knocks on the shed’s door interrupted his thoughts.

“Storm, you alright? Can I come in?” A familiar female voice asked from the other side of the door.

Storm shut off the device’s radio and flashlight before answering her.

“Yeah. I’m coming.” He replied.

A moment later, he opened the door to see Ivory against the backdrop of the slowly setting sun. The mare had two heated cans of veggies in her blue magic.

“I brought you dinner.” She said, following his gaze to the cans and answering accordingly.

“You have it.” Storm replied as he glanced back to the suit. “I’ve got work to do.”

“Is this about earlier?” She asked with an expression of a mother chewing out a pouty filly or colt. “No matter what was said, you still need to eat. Words don’t change that.”

Storm eyed her for a brief moment before stepping aside and allowing her entry into the workshed.

The unicorn mare trotted over to a nearby table where two barstools sat. Placing the cans down, she hopped up onto the seat - despite her relatively short height - with ease. Ivory then used her magic to grab a fork that she brought with her.

Turning to see if Storm had hopefully relented, she was pleased to see him holding the can in his tethered appendage as he shuffled through a drawer on the same wall as the table.

“Sorry about the utensils. It’s the last clean fork we have right now.” She said, just now realizing what he was doing.

Storm didn’t reply as he finally found what he was looking for. The stallion pulled out a flathead screwdriver and began to timidly dig into his own can.

“Is that safe?” She asked in a half serious, half joking tone.

“Guess we’ll find out, huh?” Storm replied indifferently.

After that, both Ivory and him got quiet and the room was bathed in uncomfortable silence save for the sound of silverware - and screwdriver - on tin. Finally, it was Storm who broke the silence.

“Sorry I was an asshole.” He finally said.

The stallion was facing away from her but she already knew the expression on his face. He didn’t have many, but this one she hated. It meant something was really bothering him.

Ivory didn’t reply at first but instead placed her nearly finished can - and fork - on the table before hopping off the stool and heading to his side. The mare was nearly a head shorter than him, but tried her best to wrap her forehooves around his neck.

“You’re not an asshole, Storm.” She assured. “Just grouchy.”

Before anything further could be said, the two snapped their heads up when the sound of a scratchy feminine scream filled the evening air.

“Well, guess she’s awake.” Ivory commented, stating the obvious.

“Yeah, and is gonna wake up the whole fucking network if we don’t shut her up.” Storm replied as he grabbed his Sweeper with his tethered appendage.

Ivory opened the door with her magic and headed out with Storm hot on her heels, weapon gripped at the ready.

As the two made their way back to the residential cabin of the the lighthouse, Storm had only one thought;

This is going to be trouble…

Author's Notes:

I know, I know I said this would be the big meet up between our two main protagonists - and it was - up until it became something more. This chapter was one that just worked well for me both in writing and flow. I didn't have to brainstorm like at all, it just came to me as I thought "Who is [insert character] and what is the role they have?"

So in the end it became a more indepth look at the relationships and hardships in Storm's group but I swear that next chapter will be the big hitter. Lets just say that judging by Rainbow's behavior this chapter (which will be explained later) that she isn't going to have smooth sailing when it comes to dealing with Storm or his world.